LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Hargreaves Lansdown reported net new business of £1.7bn in the three months ended 30 September on Thursday, improving from the £1.3bn it reported at the same time last year.
It explained that it was driven through a "variety of channels", including organic new client growth, ongoing wealth consolidation onto its platform from existing clients, continued flows into its cash management service 'Active Savings', and direct back book transfers from JP Morgan and Baillie Gifford of £0.9bn.

New business in the period was still impacted, however, by weak investor sentiment arising from continuing Brexit and political uncertainty in the UK and wider global macro issues such as trade tariffs.

The FTSE 100 financial services provider said net new clients totalled 35,000 for the period.

Assets under administration totalled £101.8bn as at 30 September, which was ahead 3% since 30 June, while net revenue grew 6% year-on-year to £128.1m.

Hargreaves Lansdown said the net revenue figure benefited from higher assets under administration levels, due to net new business and market growth.

It explained that, having gone through a period of elevated investment in people, digital marketing and technology in the 2017 and 2018 financial years - which was validated by the net new business flows, net new clients, retention rates and increased market share - the company had since been deliberately moderating the rate of investment.

While the board anticipated that costs would typically be aligned to client number growth, it said it was mindful of the external market environment, and thus remained watchful on costs despite the client and revenue growth experienced during the period.

"I'm pleased to report a solid start to our financial year for client, net new business and revenue growth," said chief executive officer Chris Hill.

"We continue to focus on our strategy of delivering excellent service, information and value during these continued uncertain times for our clients."

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